Hi everyone, wondering if anybody has any advice on this my latest issue as a reluctant and angry tenant! We recently moved into a house which previously had a dishwasher installed. We were told that the dishwasher was broken and would not be replaced. We said it was fine as long as we could install our own dishwasher, which the agent confirmed was fine. We installed it, but then the connection was a bit loose, and the drain pipe leaked and is now causing loud noise from vibration because it's loose. It's disturbing the neighbors. The LA sent a plumber out who glued the threads of the drain pipe to try to get it water tight, but it's still loose enough to vibrate, causing 'screaming' sounds. The problem is the drain pipe needs a proper joint fitting to attach the dishwasher drain hose to the house's plumbing. This is not a plumbing part that comes w/ a dishwasher; it should have been on the existing plumbing and was obviously removed when the broken dishwasher was taken out. (Hubby said it looked as if it had been snapped off, or maybe hack-sawed off.) We are now in a disagreement w/ the landlord over who should pay for the repair. So who is responsible for paying to have the proper joint fitted onto the drain pipe? Does this qualify as a plumbing issue that the landlord is responsible for, or an appliance issue that the tenant is responsible for? And if it's a tenant's responsibility, what is our liability if something goes wrong later as a result of the repair? Thanks for any advice/comments!

cool thanks for that aviva, i didn't realize they had so much info on their site. very handy!

hello sage advisers! just a quick and hopefully easy question...we checked into a new property on the 12th and were not given a garage key. we've been chasing the agent ever since and still not received it. if we don't get it in the next couple of days we will need to have the lock changed (it's unlocked, so we can't put stuff in it b/c of theft risk). i was planning on shorting the rent to cover the cost. this seems a legitimate short; i just feel better bouncing it off y'all to see if anyone has any caveats. thx!

i'm in the same boat so i'll chime in. i think it depends on when your tenancy agreement ends. if it ends 30 april, then no, you don't need to pay rent beyond that, and you don't have to provide advance notice that you're leaving, although practically speaking you should. but if you've rolled into a periodic tenancy, then you would need to give 30 days notice.

hi mich21, i'll pm you details about solicitors if i can figure out how to pm you! (i'm not a very forum-savvy person yet.)

hi kick butt, i wasn't originally following your thread but stumbled on it today. just wanted to say i had a very similar case to yours and settled in full before the final hearing. (deposit had been returned after i filed the claim, but i still wanted the penalty b/c of how i'd been treated and costs of having to file the claim to begin w/--used a solicitor for advice) the landlord approached me after the directions hearing proposing a lesser settlement, i told them i'd have a think, wrote back saying i would settle for the full amount, minus travel costs (they had the case transferred to their local court) since i wouldn't need to travel to the final hearing. i felt it was a personal success, but did feel a bit guilty that i didn't see it through the end in court--like i was doing a civic disservice. also i was suing a landlord whose agent was the one who failed to comply. anyhoo, for anyone else who is going through this, i would suggest that settlement is a good option, and more attractive as the case proceeds because you get so emotionally drained, stressed, obsessed, etc. also an observation--it's easy to get the impression from this site that loads of people are enforcing their rights on this issue; however, i'd venture to guess we're a minority, and it saddens me. i've spoken to a number of people who've let themselves be pushed around by obnoxious landlords and unscrupulous agents. wish there were more litigious folks out there!

hi all, to anyone who might find this useful... i read through the dispute service's rules of membership, and i believe section 6.3 protects me if i find the agent asking me to 'top up' my deposit. they are not supposed to release any of the deposit to the lanlord at any point during the tenancy. so that's the rules, but now i will have to worry about getting into a p*ssing contest w/ them over this in the event that they do attempt to require me to top up the deposit during my tenancy. i'm afraid it will lead to my being asked to leave at the end of tenancy due to my lack of cooperation.

hello everyone, i am reviewing a new tenancy agreement before signing and have a number of concerns (one of which i posted separately on here)... the agent uses the dispute service. i have read through the dispute service's rules of membership, and there is a requirement that members (ie, the agent) includes the contract clauses contained in a document called TDS G. i wanted to verify that this agreement i'm reviewing has those clauses in it, but the dispute service told me that they absolutely would not provide it. it is for members only. i asked how am i supposed to verify that the required language is in my agreement, and they said that they would verify it in the event there is a dispute at the end of tenancy, and if the language was not included in the agreement as required, they would return my deposit to me since the agent had not complied. i continued to protest, but they wouldn't cooperate and told me to seek legal advice. so anyway, does anyone happen to know what is included in TDS G? i suspect it's the prescribed information regarding deposit protection; however, the dispute service wouldn't even tell me that. i thought perhaps someone on here might know what's contained there. thanks in advance for any assistance.

i was referring to this: http://thedisputeservice.co.uk/resources/files/TDS-E-A4.pdf which appears up to date to me. i believe this is an insurance based scheme, not a custodial scheme (which is what i'd prefer!) steve m, i read an awful lot of the oft regs you sent, and i believe since they were written in 2005, they do not take into account the deposit protection schemes that are now in place. it did make very interesting reading, and so far the three tenancy agreements i've had the displeasure of reading in this country, none would pass muster with the oft on many, many counts!

from what i can gather on their web site, the 'member firm' holds the deposit in a client account, which i assume means the agent. perhaps i'll call them back and just clarify.

they use the dispute service

thanks for the replies so far. trouble is the deposit would be held by the agent as stakeholder (using the dispute service for protection). so i suppose the landlord could get his hands on it b/c the agent would be complicit i'm sure. i called the dispute service, and they said it's not valid and they would not protect a deposit under those terms. they said they would pay my deposit back to me no questions asked, then expect the agent to reimburse them. however, this doesn't protect me during the tenancy from getting harrassed by the agent/landlord to top up the deposit for potentially spurious reasons. i just think it gives them too much latitude to take advantage of us. i understand they would want us to pay for damage due to our negligence or recover rent if we didn't pay; however, i assume there are other means for them getting compensation. my understanding of the deposit is that it's strictly for use at the end of tenancy to compensate the landlord for breaches, not during.

hello all, does anyone have any thoughts/views on how to handle this situation?... i am reviewing a tenancy agmt (not signed yet) and am shocked at one clause in it: If the Landlord, acting reasonably, has need to use part or all of the Deposit during the Term because of a breach of any of the terms of this agreement by the Tenant, then the Tenant will pay, on demand, a sum sufficient to replenish the Deposit. there are a number of other areas in the agreement that concern me, and i outlined changes i'd like, but the letting agent says they will not change any of the agreement. our alternatives for housing are not as good--this is the best property for us--so i'm in a pickle. anyway, just thought i'd see if anyone else has run across a similar clause. seems like it's contrary to law, but i haven't yet asked a solicitor about it.

I sued my agent and landlord because the agent was holding my deposit, unprotected, and refusing to return it due to spurious delapidation claims. As soon as the agent was served the court papers, they returned my deposit. However, as a matter of principal, because I believe the agent has done this to many tenants, I continued my claim for the 3x statutory penalty. In the end, we reached a settlement prior to a court hearing because a) the landlord knew with a high degree of certainty that the court would award in my favor and b) the landlord did not want a county court judgment against him as this sits on their credit record and is embarrassing. By the way, the total we settled for is the total we would have gotten had we continued the court claim and been awarded the penalty, costs, and interest by the court (close to £3k). Put yourself in the landlord/agents shoes and think about what's important to them. Some agents are big national companies who do not want bad publicity. Heck, even local ones don't want bad publicity. Anyway, at the end of the day, the landlord broke the law--I suggest pursuing it with whatever means you have at your disposal. I kept imagining them doing this over and over to single mums, pensioners, etc. and it made me sick enough to take action. I used a solicitor, too, mostly as an advisor. Worth every penny.

jeffw, i'm pursuing my own case using the services of a solicitor. he calculated the interest starting from the day the noncompliance began, so 14 days after the deposit was paid. i can only assume this is legitimate but it hasn't been before a judge yet so not sure what the judge will say. the daily rate i believe is .000219 but i assume you can round to the nearest significant figure. i dont know of a website but excel is handy for doing this. or maybe google spreadsheets. you'll want to set something up coz you'll prob need to keep recalculating interest. eg, we added more interest due when filing the allocation questionnaire, and i assume we'll add more interest still when we get a hearing altho i don't know. the point is the clock keeps ticking, it'll cost the LL/LA money. good luck!